Secondary energy absorbers for vehicles have significantly improved passenger safety in car-to-truck collisions.
One known device is a rigid rear bumper extending downward from a truck bed of a tall profile vehicle, such as a transport truck. This extended bumper typically is utilized for contacting the front bumper or other front-end structure of a shorter profile passenger vehicle. In this way, the extended bumper can minimize or even prevent the shorter vehicle from riding underneath the truck. Accordingly, the extended bumper can prevent the truck bed from immediately impacting the passenger compartment of the shorter vehicle.
A drawback of this bumper is that it typically has a rigid construction that does not deform at sufficiently low loads for enhancing the management of crash energy.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an underrun protection system that improves crash energy management, minimizes intrusion into a shorter profile passenger vehicle, and has a simple and robust construction.